Elevator Music
by nerds4us
Summary: Human!stuck AU Through circumstances and insanity, Terezi is sent to a mental hospital.
1. Chapter 1

Why was she here, again?

The sickly green wallpaper glared back at Terese as she studied it, waiting for the receptionist to finish whatever she was doing in those files.

"Hello?"

Shouldn't she be, erm, receptioning? Desperate for some form entertainment, the girl quickly scanned the room for any way she could possibly deter the anticipated boredom. As her eye found just the right plaything, a chrome-plated ballpoint pen lying on the desk in front of her, she lit up, reached for it, and then winced at the sharp nails that now gripped her wrist. Looking up, Terese's steady blue gaze was met by the scrutinizing eyes of the receptionist. So she had finished her work…

The woman – Jane, now that her name tag was in full view – silently handed Terese a small packet of paperwork, as well as a pen, sadly not the shining, metallic, ballpoint she had noticed. No, it was felt tipped, its only desirable attribute being its colour, which was red. Terese quietly sucked on the tip as she looked over the forms.

Name: Peyton, Terese

Date of Birth: 09/22/1992

Cause for Admission: self-harm, deeply disturbed, probably something else :]

Filling out the third line, she cackled loudly, causing "Jane" to stand up as if to silence her; she stopped abruptly. Terese sifted through the rest of the admission and consent forms, supplying answers for most of the questions, some quite rudely, and doodling in the margins with her red "pen" once finished. When all space left on the forms was occupied, the girl rose, handing Jane the vandalized paperwork. The scowl at Terese's artwork was shown a wicked grin; she had made her mark.

"This way."

Terese's grin only broadened, as she was led down a brightly lit hallway. There were doors on either side of the linoleum floor, each with a number underneath the small window. What had Dave been thinking, sending her to this place? After dating her for nearly a year, didn't he at least know how her mind worked? Spending the minimum of two weeks that she had just signed herself up for could only screw with her head more than it had already been.


	2. Chapter 2

A cell.

They had left her in a cell.

Like a prisoner. Said abomination was hardly ten feet wide, and the creaking steel bed took up most of the space. The door behind her had been locked, of course. It was nighttime; they didn't want all the crazies running loose! But, though she could see the setting sun through the room's small window, Terese wasn't tired at all.

Nervous. That was it, she was nervous. After all, this was a new "home", a new "room", a new "bed". If they even could be called such things. They could only by the most optimistic of people, people whom Terese was not among. How had she even landed herself here?

Terese had always been careful; she had crept out of bed well past midnight, when she knew Dave would be sound asleep beside her. He was a heavy sleeper, near impossible to wake. Silently toeing down to the bathroom, where she kept a lovely supply of needles – box knives or razors were suspicious, needles were common. Flicking the light on, turning the lock, Terese had sat down on the bathroom floor, every night, pulled a needle from its hiding place behind the sink, and scratched at her open thigh, over and over until the beautiful red blood began to pour through. That red was what Terese lived for, to think that such a flawless colour pulsed inside of her. To think that the red, in fact, gave her her life. It was awe-inspiring and only left her wanting more.

But, she supposed, she hadn't been careful enough. She had worn shorts that day, barely-too-short shorts, and Dave must have caught a flash of red as she was walking to the fridge for a glass of milk. His face remained as calm as always, but the rest of him did not. Terese froze as her boyfriend rushed towards her, grabbed her wrist, and without so much as a word, pulled her into the car. They hadn't spoken more than a few sentences the whole long drive to the county's rehab center, Cloudy Lake. And here she was now.

But why?


End file.
